1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gas turbine engine powered generators or turbogenerators and cooling and thermal management systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Directed energy weapons (DEW) require megawatts (in a range of between 1-5 megawatts or more) of fast (e.g. less than 0.1 sec) on/off pulsing power. They also require megawatts of heat removal that can be provided by gas turbines driving electrical generators, also referred to as turbogenerators. Turbogenerators, such as independent APU power sources to meet the power requirement, can provide enough power but are slow (on the order of 4 sec). Batteries and complicated power electronics are often used to meet the transient power requirements. These systems typically require large RAM air heat exchangers for thermal management of the large heat loads generated by the DEW.
Directed energy weapons are representative of very high power devices in high energy systems that are being studied and developed for a variety of applications. One area of high energy systems under very active development is directed energy controlled effects, also referred to as Directed Energy Weapons (DEW). Sea based, ground, and DEW systems are being developed to provide missile defense as well as other defense related capabilities. DEW include microwave energy to disrupt enemy electronics, laser energy to damage or destroy targets and particle beam energy to damage or destroy targets.
It is highly desirable to provide a fast switching thermal management system within a single integrated turbogenerator package for high energy devices such as directed energy weapons using large amounts of electrical power in a range of between 1-5 megawatts or more.